PRESIDENTIAL SUPPORT DURING THE IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR - PEOPLES REASONING PROCESS AND MEDIA INFLUENCE

This study focused on the reasoning process through which people decided whether to support President Reagan during the Iran-Contra affair, and the role of the media in that reasoning process. Content analyses of network news showed that the media framed the Iran-Contra affair, with a high level of salience, as a valence issue (the Reagan administration's complicity in the secret dealing) rather than a position issue (the affair's international policy dimension). Path analyses of the national survey data supported the hypothesized differences in the reasoning processes based on the levels of political sophistication: Highly sophisticated people demonstrated a higher level of complexity and consistency in their reasoning process, considering more factors than less sophisticated people. The data also supported the hypothesized framing effects of the media.